1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a field of heat exchanging, especially to a partition for a heat exchanger, the present disclosure further relates to a heat exchanger having the aforementioned partition.
2. Discussion of the Background Art
A heat exchanger is a device for heat transfer between cold fluid and heat fluid, which is widely applied in the field of Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) and so on.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, FIG. 1 is a structural schematic view of a typical heat exchanger in the prior art, and FIG. 2 is an internal structural schematic view of a typical heat exchanger in the prior art.
In the common evaporators and heat pumps, a typical heat exchanger includes two parallel manifolds 11 provided therebetween with a plurality of substantially parallel tubes 12. Corrugated fins 13 are provided between adjacent tubes 12. Both manifolds 11 are provided in corresponding pipe walls thereof with a plurality of tube receiving slots in longitudinal directions of the manifolds, and the tubes 12 are respectively inserted with both ends thereof in corresponding tube receiving slots in the manifolds 11 so that the two manifolds 11 are communicated with one another. Each manifold 11 is axially provided therein with a refrigerant pipe 14 which has a plurality of holes communicated with a cavity of the manifold 11, to convey refrigerant between the refrigerant pipe 14 and the cavity of the manifold 11. In a multi-flow evaporator, a heat pump or other applications, the manifold 11 is provided therein with a partition 15 so that the heat exchanger has a plurality of flow regions which are separate from and parallel with one another.
The direction indicated by the arrows in FIG. 2 indicates a direction in which the refrigerant flows. It can easily be seen from this figure, the partition 15 may be a plate allowing flow (for example the upper partition), or may be a plate completely preventing flow (for example the lower partition). The refrigerant pipe 14 may be classified into a distributing pipe 141 and a collecting pipe 142 according to its function, in which the distributing pipe 141 is used to uniformly mix a gas phase and a liquid phase of the refrigerant and to uniformly distribute the refrigerant to each tube 12, and the collecting pipe 142 is used to suck refrigerant from the manifold 11 and to redistribute refrigerant in the refrigerant pipe 14. As shown in FIG. 2, refrigerant flows into the distributing pipe 141 through a port A and flows into the upper manifold 11 through the tubes 12. The part of the refrigerant pipe 14 at a left side of the upper partition 15 functions as a collecting pipe 142, and refrigerant flows in the pipe in the direction indicated by the arrow to a right side of the partition 15 (at this time, the part of the refrigerant pipe 14 at the right side of the partition 15 functions as a distributing pipe 141), and then flows to a port B through the tubes 12. Obviously, when refrigerant flows into the heat exchanger through the port B and flows out of the heat exchanger through the port A, the functions of the distributing pipe 141 and the collecting pipe 142 shown in FIG. 2 are reversed.
Referring to FIG. 3 which is a schematic view of the connection between the manifold and the refrigerant pipe in the heat exchanger shown in FIG. 2.
The manifold 11 is provided therein with a partition 15, and the partition 15 is provided therein with a mounting hole 151 through which the refrigerant pipe 14 can pass. At the same time, the manifold 11 is provided at a predetermined position of a side wall thereof with a segment of mounting groove 111 extending in a circumferential direction of the manifold. When assembling the heat exchanger, the partition 15 is radially inserted inside the manifold 11 through the mounting groove 111 with an edge portion of the partition 15 inserted inside the manifold 11 abuts against an inner wall of the manifold 11. Then the refrigerant pipe 14 is inserted in the mounting hole 151 in the partition 15 and is fixedly provided in the manifold 11 together with the partition 15. At last, the manifold 11, the partition 15 and the refrigerant pipe 14 are fixedly connected into one piece by brazing and so on.
When the manifold 11 and the refrigerant pipe 14 are long, the refrigerant pipe 14 has small rigidity and thus is easy to flex. If the mounting hole 151 in the partition 15 has a small size, after the partition 15 is assembled with the manifold 11, the refrigerant pipe 14 may unable to be inserted in the partition 15 because of the small gap between the partition 15 and the refrigerant pipe 14. However, if the gap is too large, the refrigerant pipe 14 may unable to be welded with the partition 15, which results in a leakage, and therefore the performance of the product is affected.
In addition, regarding the lower partition 15 in FIG. 2, in the prior art, one end of the refrigerant pipe 14 is plugged up and the other end thereof is fixed on an end cap so that the refrigerant pipe 14 forms a cantilever structure. When the heat exchanger is operated, the refrigerant pipe 14 would be vibrated, which would affect the service life of the product and also give rise to noise.
As a result, a technical problem to be solved by the person skilled in the art at present is to improve mounting quality of the refrigerant pipe and to enhance reliability of the heat exchanger.